The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions)Movement claims to be a grass roots institution simply out to make the world understand the cruelty and inhuman treatment the Israelis foist upon the Arabs and how Israel has its designs on stealing everything through the settlements grabbing up all the Arab lands. About the only thing they do not purport is that Israel is guilty of its seeking a ‘Greater Israel’ which is a reference to the lands granted to Abraham would include everything from the Euphrates River to the Nile River. That is just another libelous accusation made through twisting the words in Torah or some of the accompanying volumes of books of commentary on the Torah, Bible (Old Testament) and even volumes of books commenting on the commentary which in turn have books commenting on those commentaries. When your religion has been around for over three-thousand years you tend to gather a whole lot of commentaries and directives which certain subgroups within Judaism hold sacred and live by them some unbelievable strictly and others close enough. The one thing you are most certainly guaranteed is that any subject you wish to choose you will very likely find Jews in some commentary arguing for the proposed view you seek. Sometimes the position is one actually followed by some group of Jews and other times the person takes that unfavorable side simply to play devil’s advocate and provide challenges to another presumed wise person who abides by the opposing argument. So what we end up having are some commentaries made not as an argument or presumed hope of them being followed but being used as a tool to push some to complete their arguments and frame their discourse more succinctly and more accurately. When somebody comes to you and claims that the Talmud instructs the Jews to do something that sounds somewhat ridiculous or not at all Jewish from what you have observed, then it is most likely one of those Devil’s advocate arguments, which in itself is an odd way to argue when one considers that traditional Judaism does not believe in the Devil or fallen angels and Hell; but that will need to wait for another time when I have been taught Torah and some of those commentaries no matter how obscure.

The BDS movement and idea has really been in the news in Israel lately and for good reason. First we had the arch-terrorist Jibril Rajoub (a.k.a. Abu Rami) whose first position within Fatah was to organize and take part in activities in and around Hevron to the detriment of the Jews; this was presumably his responsibility in efforts to end the so-called occupation. In 1968 he was arrested for aiding Egyptian officers in making their way back to Egypt without being caught by the Israeli authorities for which he spent four months in prison. He was only sixteen at this time but still well on his way. While in prison he was influenced and joined Fatah which after serving his prison sentence he took up his assigned duties. In September of 1970 his future terror prospects looked very dim as he was caught and arrested for lobbing a grenade at an Israeli army bus near Hebron. Jibril Rajoub was tried and found guilty leading to his being sentenced to life in prison. Well, obviously he did not remain there as in 1985 he was part of a one-thousand-one-hundred-fifty prisoner release in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by the PFLP terror group. His colorful history had him arrested for minor offences, all things considered, and served additional time in prison before being expelled into Lebanon from where he found his way to Tunisia where he worked closely as an aid to the most infamous of the Arab arch-terrorists, Yasser Arafat. As part of the Oslo Accords he was granted a new lease on continuing his efforts to destroy Israel and this past week he played that position to the maximum. As the Palestinian Football Association President presiding over soccer teams he also took the opportunity at the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association or in English International Federation of Association Football) 65th annual Congress which met in Switzerland to announce his intentions to push for Israel to be unlisted and booted from the football world’s governing body which would have denied Israel the right to play in any FIFA tournament or to even play against FIFA teams. Such a ban would probably have mushroomed to other sports and made Israeli athletes persona non grata in the world of sports. Jibril Rajoub played his filing in the media like a trained professional instigator by his alternately claiming he would file the motion and then retract that statement only to deny he had detracted the statement and the world was all titillated watching every nuanced move orchestrated for maximum coverage, and boy did he get coverage. Some might ask what does an Arab Palestinian Authority official have to do with the BDS movement which is a grassroots organizations with no actual structure, simply they have supporters and volunteer organizers and activists which is why the BDS movement does not have official offices or accounts in any banks or financial institutions as there are no payrolls or anything nefarious like an international structure which coordinates the events and spends millions of dollars, Euros, Pounds or whatever currency of the realm is required. We will get to the connection, be patient please. The eventual end to the Jibril Rajoub staged a well-orchestrated routine where he did not file as he was aware from the very beginning that he would not have sufficient support to get Israel banned, but it did give some demonstrators the opportunity to burst into the meeting hall and throw red flags at the Israeli representatives and chant some call to boot Israel from soccer. These were presumably grassroots BDS supporters who just happened to all appear on the same day at the same time replete with red flags to throw at the Israeli delegation and so conveniently so as to garner more press coverage of the idea that Israel was subversive even to something as pure and good as soccer. Never mind the other woes FIFA is suffering right now as everybody knows that soccer is the one sport that united the world, well, apparently except for Israel? Well, not quite as Israel is still a member, a respected member of FIFA.

Right on the heels of the FIFA fiasco was the British National Union of Students (NUS) voting to boycott all things Israel including every Israeli company without regard to its location because the BDS movement is growing and realizing the reality that it is not the settlements alone that are the problem, it is the existence of Israel itself and that the Jewish State must be brought down and the Jews punished for existing at all, and to even strive and believe themselves worthy of a state of their own, how nineteenth century is that? They filed Motion 518a which was titled “Solidarity with Palestine: Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions” which was tabled. The NUS was the same body which refused to take any measures to boycott or even denounce ISIS at their meetings last year but Israel needs to be brought low. The vote and everything about the BDS movement at the NUS conference was denounced and voided by the Universities UK which is the actual ruling body and has the sole power in areas such as the BDS protests and any divestments, sanctions or boycotts (did I get that all in the wrong order, shame on me for ignoring the BDS name). In a press release the Universities UK stated “firmly opposes academic boycotts on the basis that they are inimical to academic freedom, including the freedom of academics to collaborate with other academics.” They continued emphatically emphasizing “Given the reported perception in Israel that UK universities support an academic boycott. The board of Universities UK wishes to confirm its previously stated position that it is firmly opposed to any academic boycott of Israeli universities.” They added just to make sure everybody understands their position and displeasure with the NUS grandstanding and offensive behavior in this matter stating that, “The board also confirms its view that all universities must uphold, in the interests of free expression of ideas, the fundamental right of academics to question national and international policies.” That put that BDS effort to bed once and for all for this year, it will return next year.

Finally we had the little BDS confusion at Orange where their CEO Stephane Richard made comments after receiving pressures from BDS activists in Europe and especially from Egypt as well which cause Stephane Richard to panic and immediately turn to the usual European response when anti-Semites challenge their position on the ‘Jews and their little nation’ Stephane Richard simply agreed and denounced Israel claiming that Orange would break off their agreement with Partner Communications, the Orange affiliate in Israel, except that it would be costly due to potential lawsuits being filed in those unfriendly Israeli courts who would condemn Orange despite any evidences provided claiming they don’t really hate the Jews. For the week following the outspoken and base hatred expressed by Orange CEO Stephane Richard, we have now been serenaded as is Stephane Richard is planning in asking for Israel’s hand in marriage. We have heard what a lovely nation Israel is and how important our good relations are to Orange in general and CEO Stephane Richard in particular. The apology has been laid on like a thick, rich layer of whipped cream atop a luscious ice cream Sunday with three flavors of ice cream and rich chocolate and caramel heated nice and hot poured all over the top until it pooled at the bottom. We must all wonder if next week that Orange CEO Stephane Richard will be buying Israel a beautiful bouquet of roses or will it be an outlandish floral arrangement containing no less than one-hundred flowers, bouquet so large it will take their large truck to deliver the flowers. Actually, it would be best if everyone would stop with the hypocrisy and just let everything lie and it will pass. All the backtracking and false compliment and flattery is getting old and stale faster than they are delivered. A simple ‘We’re sorry but we panicked’ would have sufficed as the Israelis have seen worse than this and even in the past couple of weeks.

Now that we have taken a quick look-see of the BDS movements activities for the last couple of weeks one can realize that whoever is financing this effort worldwide has some very deep pockets. The reality is that the financers of these BDS efforts are constantly claiming to be out of money and being unable to pay their employees and if billions, if not trillions of Euros, dollars, Pounds Sterling, Pecos, Ruble, Wan or any other currency and denomination and need it immediately. The BDS movement used to have another name and was started in 1948 around May 14th oddly enough. The original system of boycotting, divesting and sanctioning Israel was the Arab League boycott and Arab League blacklist. The boycott is obvious and the blacklist was a long list of companies which either used Israeli provided parts in their products or were otherwise entangled with Israeli interests. For quite a while the Arab League required that every shipment brought into their nations had to sign an affidavit stating that none of the products had Israeli parts and that their company had no relationship including selling to Israel. This eventually caused a problem as that would have meant that the Arab nations would not be able to buy most weapons systems, especially from the United States and many companies in Europe.

There was one particular article which revealed much about the BDS movement on Arutz Sheva titled Who is Really Behind BDS? We Can Cut Off BDS at the Spigot”. Here are a few of the more vital quotes which will fill in much of the debate about the BDS movement and after which I will attempt to give some additional information. Much of the article was items many of us realized and knew but the placing them all in a coherent and cognizant manner drew the big picture beautifully. I would advise that we all read the article itself at the link above as the author was quite complete as he traced the history and the current modus operandi of a terrorist organization using political means to further their financially based efforts to isolate Israel as well as politically and socially isolating Israel making even giving minimal support in some meaningless conversation to be an unforgivable sin and breach of polite behavior. What is sickening is how many Jewish groups are out there using very enticing and misleading names who almost exclusively back the BDS movement and are themselves working to destroy Israel. They use Lawfare which is using the courts to attack Israel and tie up any pro-Israel groups in the courts fighting against suits brought merely as nuisances but they are effective in forcing these groups supporting Israel spending inordinate amounts of time defending themselves from the attacks and thus not protecting Israel in the media and through other programs. This was the modus operandi of the IRS auditing an astounding number of conservative or libertarian groups during the year and a half before the 2012 elections thus preventing these groups from campaigning. Many of these groups were small Tea Party groups who made the mistake of calling themselves ‘Pleasant Valley Tea Party Association’ which got them immediate and in depth invasive IRS auditing and slowing requests for tax exempt status where the questions got to the point of being ludicrous, but they did prevent them from campaigning against President Obama, the same tactic appears to be used against many pro-Israel groups.

The article pointed out that “The Arab league spokesman confirmed that all data of the Arab League boycott and Arab League blacklist has now been transferred to BDS, working under the control of each PLO legation in more than 100 countries, under the supervision of the PLO Negotiations Department, which coordinates activities with the central offices of the Palestinian Authority.” This is one of the driving reasons that Mahmoud Abbas desires to become a recognized entity and thus allow the Arab Palestine Authority to open embassies and consulates in every nation and major city worldwide. This is important as the article points out the manner as to how the BDS movement is financed when they pointed out, “Since supervision of funds for Palestinian humanitarian services in the PA or UNRWA hardly exists, and since more than one nation provides cash for each of the Palestinian humanitarian services, that means that a cash surplus exists which PA can allocate for BDS activists to finance their operations.” This allows the Arab Palestinian Authority to distribute cash funds to their BDS organizers, instigators, activists and also pay for the establishment of on campus BDS groups who keep up the defamation of Israel year round and often make life on campus for anybody outwardly Jewish to become a living nightmare as they are heckled and hassled everywhere they go on campus and in some instances the harassment reached the point of violence against the Jews much like when the Jews were removed and disallowed from holding teaching positions or attending universities in the late 1930s in Germany.

There are two related statements about the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) not ratifying the OSLO Accords and thus being free to act in any manner they wished and not be in violation of the Oslo Accords as they had never ratified the treaty. It was the PLO and Yasser Arafat’s way of crossing his fingers so he could say anything without actually completing the deal and complying with the agreements. The first points out how the public have never been informed of this treachery and deceit despite their once being well known but now not referenced or taught and thus forgotten by most the first commentary pointed out that even a far leftist organization and media outlet found this behavior reprehensible. The article states, “Only three weeks after the Oslo Accords were initialed on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, pending ratification by both sides, a prominent left wing journalist, Pinchas Inbari, reporting for the Mapam (Meretz) newspaper Al Hamishmar from the PLO headquarters in Tunis, reported that PLO leader Yassir Arafat announced that on the day of the scheduled PLO ratification, October 6, 1993, the PLO leader could not or would not convene the necessary quorum for ratification. As a result, the Oslo Accords have gone unratified to this day.” The point that the people were never really made aware of the perfidy committed by Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas, his second in command, as they point out that, “What has escaped public attention is that the PLO never ratified the ‘declaration of principles’, the most fundamental document of the Israel-Palestinian Oslo Accords, nor did the PLO ever cancel its charter to destroy Israel, which was another major clause in that accord.” The basic truth is that for the entire time since September of 1993 when the Oslo Accords were formally put in place, Yasser Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas and the rest of the executive council of the PLO and thus of the newly established Palestinian Authority (PA or as we refer to them because they are no different than the Arabs residing or fleeing Syria as well as the Arabs of Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Iran, the Arab Palestinian Authority) were recognized of representing an organization which did not actually exist as the Oslo Accords were never signed by the Arab side. The Western nations went along with this facade because the alternative was too horrible for them to even consider, support the Jews and Israel in retaining all the lands promised them by treaty that the Europeans and United States as well as the League of Nations and subsequently the United Nations such that the treaties which affect the defined borders of Israel are the actual International Laws thus everything else is some weird manifestation of anti-Semitism, anti-Israel, and anti-Zionism. The BDS financial system is known fully well by the Western nations and the Arab nations as they both pour trillions of Euros, dollars, however you wish to measure the financial cesspool the Arab Palestinian Authority and related groups such as Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PLO, PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine), and numerous other groups and families all benefit from this inflow on monies as long as they are sufficiently high enough in the pecking order that they are trusted to use at least a pittance of the cash allotted you to spend on the betterment of the Arab suffering if it is not too much of a problem.

The reality is that much of the monies sent to the Arab Palestinian organizations is siphoned off for use in the multi-billion dollar BDS organizational leaders, activists, organizers, and antagonists who all need funding in order to achieve their assigned goals. The full time BDS representatives and leadership that exist on almost every campus and in every city where there exists an Arab Palestinian consulate, embassy, or simply an office, they become the cash delivery resource who are sent probably funding in the millions if not more to finance the BDS movement activities in their assigned region. Such items as fees for using a park grounds for a demonstration, the signs, banners and other items do not simply appear out of the thin air, the microphones, bullhorns, whistles, speakers, tables, literature and everything else which goes into a successful week long demonstration on a university or college campus. These Arab Palestinian Authority outlets, be they embassies, consulates or merely offices and in some cases a completely underground operation, all are used as the pipelines to the BDS main middle managing organizers, publicists, media contact point people, marshals, and such cannot afford to fly to Ramallah every month for their allowance as that just might draw some international attention, though maybe I am giving the world too much credit as the world often appears to be capable of not seeing any of the thousands of rockets fired into Israel at civilian targets and only see the Israeli response and demand Israel stop its aggressions while saying nothing about the rockets, ambush tunnels and expanding use of young children as makeshift bullet proof vests. One has to grant that having a four year old screaming while strapped to one’s chest during a firefight is beyond the cusp and right into the deep recesses of evil insanity which permits such irreverence for life. Meanwhile we have the PLO organized, Fatah manned and Arab Palestinian Authority (PA) financed BDS movement which is simply an extension of the original Arab boycott and blacklist of companies ‘contaminated’ by Israeli exposure. The BDS movement is the PLO terrorist group’s attempt to take their economic war against Israel worldwide and as we have seen in these quotes and these actions that the BDS movement pushes a complete isolation of Israel in all venues including goods and services, music performances, academics, speeches by Israel supporters must be forced to cancel and finally politically isolated until Israel has been diminished and dies a natural death as any living, breathing, compassionate human entity would if left in complete isolation not permitted any interaction and starved of life’s necessities.

Fortunately there are sufficient numbers of leaders and strong willed people that are fighting the BDS syndrome by simply acting and being humane and human. Israelis and their government are finally wakening to the damage caused by the BDS movement and other related groups and hopefully there are those who can at least dry up much of the Western monies from financing BDS forcing the dictatorial rulers in the Middle East to pay for all of the BDS. But this fight is far more than just the BDS movement or even the government financed groups which excoriate Israel ranting about the worst treatment or how the Israelis treat the people held hostage and starved in Gaza. Let’s use this as the example. Gaza received two thirds of their electricity and all their drinking water from Israel and Israeli companies are not paid by the Arab Palestinians or their governing representatives. That is but the tip of the situation. Any nations wishing to provide goods for Gaza may do so as long as there are no dual use items or actual weapons included in their shipment and the Israelis will deliver every ounce of it into Gaza for Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLO or the PA to distribute. Additionally, Israel provides tens of truckloads of food, medical supplies and other items daily even including every single day of last summer’s military operations in Gaza as nothing stops these transfers as the Israelis have no desire to have the people of Gaza suffer in any manner. Unfortunately for the residents of Gaza the same cannot be said for their governing entities. Often Israel had sent the trucks with food which is perishable if not taken and stored properly with some degree of immediacy. These truckloads were simply left in the sun to rot by the rulers in Gaza just so there would be an emergency and food shortage for visiting United Nations, European Union or whoever was scheduled to tour Gaza. Often during these inspections or visits the power lines from Israel are disconnected and once the parliament in Gaza covered their windows with blackout blankets and had photographers take pictures of their meeting in the darkness so they should have stories written about how the Israelis refused to provide sufficient electricity and they are forced to work in complete darkness. The blankets did not quite completely cover the windows and the bright sunlight outside could be seen in many of the pictures, but still there was an international hue and cry demanding that Israel fulfill their obligation to provide the electricity that the government in Gaza had paid for, despite their never having paid one single Agorot, let alone Shekels.

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